Developing Perspective

00:00:00 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to Developing Perspective.

00:00:03 ◼   ► Developing Perspective is a podcast discussing news of no-tune iOS development, Apple, and

00:00:06 ◼   ► the like.

00:00:07 ◼   ► I'm your host, David Smith.

00:00:08 ◼   ► I'm an independent iOS developer based in Herndon, Virginia.

00:00:11 ◼   ► This is show number 57, and today is Tuesday, June 19th.

00:00:16 ◼   ► Developing Perspective is never longer than 15 minutes, so let's get started.

00:00:20 ◼   ► So a couple things I'm going to talk about today, but first, just a moment of solidarity

00:00:24 ◼   ► for all you people out there who are independents, who work out of your own homes.

00:00:30 ◼   ► This morning, I had our nannies out of town for various things, and so I was helping out

00:00:35 ◼   ► my wife.

00:00:36 ◼   ► And as part of what I did today was I was trying to do some work while my two children

00:00:40 ◼   ► were around, and then one of them left, and I was watching our youngest daughter.

00:00:47 ◼   ► And it was an interesting reminder for me of just how hard that is to get anything done

00:00:53 ◼   ► When you have young--

00:00:54 ◼   ► I imagine it gets easier as you have older children,

00:00:57 ◼   ► but especially young children at home.

00:01:00 ◼   ► It is so hard to stay focused because you're

00:01:02 ◼   ► oscillating between guilt about work

00:01:06 ◼   ► and guilt about your home life.

00:01:08 ◼   ► And so I discussed this at depth back in episode 29,

00:01:12 ◼   ► Working in an Office.

00:01:13 ◼   ► So I'll link to that in the show notes

00:01:15 ◼   ► if you're curious for a more detailed explanation of why

00:01:18 ◼   ► I rent office space just down the road from my house

00:01:21 ◼   ► just so I can sort of go to the office, do my job,

00:01:24 ◼   ► and then come home and be engaged with my family.

00:01:26 ◼   ► But a moment of solidarity was an experience this morning

00:01:30 ◼   ► that I--

00:01:30 ◼   ► Wednesday I had forgotten how difficult it was,

00:01:33 ◼   ► but it was interesting to kind of experience that again

00:01:35 ◼   ► after a couple of years of just primarily working out

00:01:38 ◼   ► of an office.

00:01:39 ◼   ► It's tough.

00:01:40 ◼   ► And if you don't know the people who can do it, more power to you.

00:01:43 ◼   ► That's very impressive.

00:01:45 ◼   ► So the main topic I was going to talk about today

00:01:48 ◼   ► is the current lineup of computers

00:01:52 ◼   ► and what that means for developers, I suppose.

00:01:56 ◼   ► So as I've moaned about on this show a couple of times,

00:02:01 ◼   ► they really didn't give us a Mac Pro update

00:02:04 ◼   ► that we were hoping for.

00:02:05 ◼   ► The Mac Pro got a very minor bump, but in reality, nothing

00:02:10 ◼   ► really too impressive.

00:02:11 ◼   ► They just-- essentially, Intel discontinued the old chips,

00:02:13 ◼   ► so Apple had to sort of reshuffle

00:02:16 ◼   ► the setup a little bit, but they really

00:02:18 ◼   ► didn't do much in terms of making the computer any better.

00:02:25 ◼   ► It still doesn't have Thunderbolt.

00:02:27 ◼   ► It's still-- if you look on the back, it's kind of crazy.

00:02:30 ◼   ► You see it has the old DVI slot still for plugging in a DVI

00:02:34 ◼   ► port, even though Apple doesn't sell any displays with DVI.

00:02:37 ◼   ► They're all mini-display port.

00:02:39 ◼   ► It has all these other crazy features, and you're looking,

00:02:42 ◼   ► like, really?

00:02:43 ◼   ► And then you remember, yeah, that hasn't really

00:02:45 ◼   ► been updated in two years.

00:02:46 ◼   ► And it's kind of strange that it hasn't.

00:02:49 ◼   ► And you kind of wonder what's going on

00:02:51 ◼   ► and why Apple wouldn't update it, even if not necessarily

00:02:57 ◼   ► the major update we were all hoping for.

00:02:59 ◼   ► Even kind of like, if you're going to change anything,

00:03:02 ◼   ► if you're going to have to do some minor adjustments,

00:03:04 ◼   ► why not just actually update it and make it a--

00:03:09 ◼   ► do some of these basic things like getting a Thunderbolt,

00:03:11 ◼   ► or things that if you really are using it for pro applications,

00:03:17 ◼   ► that would make it a lot better.

00:03:19 ◼   ► But they didn't.

00:03:20 ◼   ► So we're kind of stuck with what we have.

00:03:21 ◼   ► And I was kind of looking at this,

00:03:24 ◼   ► and there's an article I posted on my site about just looking

00:03:27 ◼   ► at the laptop lineup, which is interesting.

00:03:29 ◼   ► And I think from that sort of analysis, what I really end up

00:03:32 ◼   ► with is the MacBook Air, the top of the line 11,

00:03:36 ◼   ► is an absolutely amazing machine in terms

00:03:38 ◼   ► cost for performance, cost per pound, just the whole thing.

00:03:43 ◼   ► It's a very solid machine.

00:03:45 ◼   ► And if you're looking for a laptop that--

00:03:47 ◼   ► it's whose role is primarily just for being--

00:03:51 ◼   ► portability for going from place to place, for travel.

00:03:56 ◼   ► It's an amazing machine, and I highly recommend

00:03:59 ◼   ► looking at that machine.

00:04:00 ◼   ► I have an older version of the 11 inch Air,

00:04:03 ◼   ► and it is just incredible.

00:04:04 ◼   ► I mean, my wife loves it because it's

00:04:07 ◼   ► the first and only computer she's ever had that she can take to work in her purse. She

00:04:12 ◼   ► doesn't need a laptop bag, she just takes the air, slots it in her purse, and off she

00:04:17 ◼   ► goes. And it's not heavy, so you don't really notice it, and it's not particularly large.

00:04:23 ◼   ► I mean, it's no larger than just, probably smaller than even a lot of, like a pad folio

00:04:28 ◼   ► that you take to work. And so it's kind of crazy to have that much power in that size.

00:04:35 ◼   ► Battery life isn't as good as you'd like, and that's just something that I think is

00:04:38 ◼   ► -- yeah, that's the tradeoff you're making for having a device just that small.

00:04:43 ◼   ► Battery life for me is -- it's sort of important, but there's very few circumstances where I

00:04:48 ◼   ► find it really matters.

00:04:50 ◼   ► Maybe that's just the way that I work, where I go, what I'm doing.

00:04:54 ◼   ► I usually have access to some kind of power at some point in the day where I can quickly

00:05:01 ◼   ► recharge and go from there.

00:05:03 ◼   ► I mean, a classic arrangement, too, is to have--

00:05:05 ◼   ► say you're going back and forth to an office.

00:05:07 ◼   ► You just buy an extra power adapter, have one in each place.

00:05:10 ◼   ► So it's not like you have to carry the power brick with you

00:05:13 ◼   ► everywhere you go.

00:05:14 ◼   ► If you're the kind of person who's based on airplanes a lot,

00:05:17 ◼   ► or is constantly going to coffee shops to work or things,

00:05:21 ◼   ► maybe that's not the best computer.

00:05:23 ◼   ► But otherwise, definitely a very solid computer,

00:05:26 ◼   ► especially as a secondary computer.

00:05:28 ◼   ► I think it's probably-- it's by far the best secondary computer

00:05:32 ◼   ► around, and I think there's a lot of people who like the 13.

00:05:36 ◼   ► And I think I saw some stats that it's probably

00:05:38 ◼   ► actually more popular.

00:05:39 ◼   ► And I can see that.

00:05:41 ◼   ► The thing about, for me though, with the 13-inch air,

00:05:44 ◼   ► is if you're going to get an air,

00:05:46 ◼   ► it feels like you want it to be as small as possible.

00:05:49 ◼   ► The goal is size rather than necessarily balance

00:05:54 ◼   ► or combining a variety of different metrics.

00:05:56 ◼   ► And so for me, the 13 seems a bit awkward.

00:05:59 ◼   ► you may as well get a MacBook Pro at that point,

00:06:03 ◼   ► because the size and weight aren't as small,

00:06:05 ◼   ► but you're limited in a lot of different ways versus a Pro.

00:06:10 ◼   ► But then really, you get into the crux

00:06:13 ◼   ► of what I'm going to talk about is a developer's machine.

00:06:17 ◼   ► And this is a machine that you're going to be imagining

00:06:19 ◼   ► as your workhorse, your battle-hardened development

00:06:24 ◼   ► machine that you're running Xcode, Photoshop, Mail, Safari,

00:06:27 ◼   ► Twitter client maybe and you're just, you know, cranking on it all day long.

00:06:32 ◼   ► Which machine makes best for that context?

00:06:35 ◼   ► And for me right now I'm running a 27-inch iMac that was the top of the line

00:06:38 ◼   ► about two and a half years ago.

00:06:40 ◼   ► It's got an i7, Geekbench is I think about 10,000.

00:06:44 ◼   ► It's a pretty solid machine, but I don't think I'd get another iMac,

00:06:48 ◼   ► primarily just for extendability reasons.

00:06:51 ◼   ► It's been very frustrating that I can't change the hard drive inside.

00:06:55 ◼   ► I can't do really anything to it without it going to an Apple store.

00:06:58 ◼   ► So the iMacs are nice.

00:07:01 ◼   ► I imagine they're going to have an Ivy Bridge version soon.

00:07:03 ◼   ► My guess would be sometime this fall.

00:07:06 ◼   ► And they're just focusing right now on giving all the processors they can

00:07:09 ◼   ► to the MacBook Pro lineup.

00:07:11 ◼   ► So that's why there hasn't been a refresh on the iMac.

00:07:13 ◼   ► But at some point soon, there'll probably be a refresh to it,

00:07:16 ◼   ► unless bundled in with Tim Cook's Strange.

00:07:19 ◼   ► Sometime later next year, there'll be something awesome for Pros.

00:07:24 ◼   ► So that's kind of out.

00:07:26 ◼   ► Mac Mini is an interesting machine, mostly just

00:07:29 ◼   ► because of its price.

00:07:30 ◼   ► It's a really inexpensive machine

00:07:32 ◼   ► for quite a lot of performance.

00:07:33 ◼   ► You can get quite a lot done for between $600 and $1,000

00:07:40 ◼   ► that you can get it for.

00:07:43 ◼   ► You're getting quite a lot of performance out of that.

00:07:46 ◼   ► And you have some extendability with it.

00:07:49 ◼   ► But I find myself struggling just

00:07:51 ◼   ► because it tops out at a performance that's probably

00:07:55 ◼   ► going to be frustrating for a lot of developers.

00:07:57 ◼   ► So it's not really recommended unless it

00:08:00 ◼   ► was kind of like a holdover machine

00:08:02 ◼   ► just to wait out this weird awkward phase.

00:08:06 ◼   ► And so then you kind of end up looking,

00:08:08 ◼   ► I think, at the two main candidates

00:08:10 ◼   ► for what you're working on.

00:08:14 ◼   ► And so you can get either one of the new Retina MacBook Pros,

00:08:17 ◼   ► or you can get a Mac Pro.

00:08:20 ◼   ► And the Mac Pro is-- it's two years old,

00:08:23 ◼   ► but it's still a pretty impressive machine in the sense

00:08:26 ◼   ► that it still gets fairly impressive Geekbench scores

00:08:29 ◼   ► and compilation times.

00:08:31 ◼   ► It's very extendable.

00:08:31 ◼   ► You can put in four hard drives, and you

00:08:34 ◼   ► can put in more RAM than you could shake a stick at.

00:08:36 ◼   ► I mean, it can do a lot with that machine.

00:08:39 ◼   ► But it is kind of weird because it's priced

00:08:42 ◼   ► really high for what you get.

00:08:46 ◼   ► And so just kind of-- I sat down and did the math.

00:08:49 ◼   ► And so I'm going to be comparing it to the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

00:08:51 ◼   ► And if you're going to get a 15-inch MacBook Pro, as a developer,

00:08:55 ◼   ► I think it's worth the extra, I guess, $450 to upgrade it fully.

00:09:01 ◼   ► And so you get the 2.7 gigahertz quad core

00:09:05 ◼   ► i7, which is a $250 upgrade, and then max out the RAM at 16 gigs.

00:09:11 ◼   ► Flash Storage, it's a $500 upgrade to just get the extra-- what's that?

00:09:17 ◼   ► to go from 512 to 768, which I think is probably not worth it.

00:09:22 ◼   ► That $500 you could get a pretty beefy external Thunderbolt hard

00:09:27 ◼   ► drive for that, with a lot more storage, which would probably end up

00:09:30 ◼   ► serving you better in the long run.

00:09:32 ◼   ► 512 is probably good enough for most use of a computer, in terms of

00:09:37 ◼   ► it may not necessarily want to store your photo archives or video

00:09:42 ◼   ► archives on there.

00:09:43 ◼   ► But as a working drive, it should be large enough.

00:09:47 ◼   ► And so you add all those together and you get a cost of about $3,250 basically.

00:09:55 ◼   ► And that's a very impressive machine.

00:09:58 ◼   ► It's got this crazy retina display, very fast processor, 16 gigs of RAM,

00:10:03 ◼   ► pretty large hard drive that is SSD on motherboard, amazing.

00:10:08 ◼   ► It has some downsides. It's not at all upgradeable.

00:10:11 ◼   ► You can't do anything with it, which is certainly a downer.

00:10:14 ◼   ► But you know, it's pretty solid at that price.

00:10:17 ◼   ► So then I was curious to say, what Mac Pro could you get for kind of an equivalent amount

00:10:23 ◼   ► of performance and money?

00:10:27 ◼   ► And it seems like the closest you get is if you start with the six core Mac Pro, which

00:10:32 ◼   ► gets roughly comparable performance.

00:10:35 ◼   ► It's slightly higher performance if you look at benchmarks, but primarily I think that

00:10:39 ◼   ► as an extra core advantage because it has six rather than four cores rather than necessarily

00:10:44 ◼   ► a speed improvement that you would necessarily see.

00:10:46 ◼   ► It's like it has a 15% ish higher geek bench, but in reality I don't think you'd be able

00:10:52 ◼   ► to really feel that 15% unless you're ripping DVDs or things.

00:10:56 ◼   ► But often I think the disk I/O performance that you need will be the bigger difference

00:11:02 ◼   ► there.

00:11:03 ◼   ► And so what I did is I took that one, which is a base price of $3,000.

00:11:07 ◼   ► But if you want to upgrade its RAM to 16 gigs,

00:11:10 ◼   ► it'll cost you another $100.

00:11:11 ◼   ► And then if you wanted to put in a comparably sized SSD,

00:11:16 ◼   ► it'd be another $600, which puts its price at about $500

00:11:21 ◼   ► over what the MacBook Pro would cost.

00:11:24 ◼   ► If you put in a smaller SSD, you could go up

00:11:26 ◼   ► to about, I think, 120 gigabyte SSD,

00:11:30 ◼   ► and the prices would match up almost exactly.

00:11:32 ◼   ► And I'm looking at solid state storage

00:11:35 ◼   ► from other world computing, macsales.com.

00:11:39 ◼   ► They're the best place to go.

00:11:41 ◼   ► So it's kind of looking at that.

00:11:42 ◼   ► So you end up with--

00:11:43 ◼   ► so you can have a small SSD and everything else be the same,

00:11:46 ◼   ► or be your SSD and $500 more.

00:11:49 ◼   ► You end up with two machines that are fairly comparable in

00:11:52 ◼   ► terms of day-to-day performance.

00:11:55 ◼   ► Your actual-- what you would experience in your

00:11:57 ◼   ► day-to-day life in actually using these machines would

00:12:00 ◼   ► probably be very similar between them in terms of

00:12:02 ◼   ► performance and capability.

00:12:04 ◼   ► The Mac Pro obviously has the advantage of larger internal drives, which is nice, I suppose.

00:12:10 ◼   ► But the MacBook Pro, of course, is also coming with a retina display and is actually portable.

00:12:19 ◼   ► And so you end up with this kind of strange thing where the Mac Pro is great, but only

00:12:25 ◼   ► really if you're bringing along a bunch of things with you.

00:12:29 ◼   ► If you already have a nice big display, if you really never need to work away from your

00:12:33 ◼   ► computer and you have an SSD already, then it's probably a better buy.

00:12:37 ◼   ► The interesting thing is the money between them is fairly similar.

00:12:40 ◼   ► A lot of times traditionally a Mac Pro has better resale value, but I'm not so sure if

00:12:47 ◼   ► this particular rev will have the same resale.

00:12:50 ◼   ► I'm just kind of skeptical about that, just because it's such this weird middle ground

00:12:54 ◼   ► and I feel like there's going to be a lot of the same Mac Pros kicking around in a way

00:13:00 ◼   ► that it's not like there's a new update or something special about it.

00:13:07 ◼   ► It's the same computer as essentially they've been selling for two or three years.

00:13:11 ◼   ► And so I feel like there's going to be somewhat more inventory, which doesn't help with resale.

00:13:16 ◼   ► But resale is also kind of a weird thing.

00:13:18 ◼   ► Buying something with the expectation of selling it, selling computers in my experience is

00:13:23 ◼   ► a huge nightmare and hassle.

00:13:24 ◼   ► So I'd rather avoid it.

00:13:26 ◼   ► And so when I kind of weigh those things together, that for roughly the same money-ish, you can

00:13:32 ◼   ► get sort of the same machine in a MacBook Pro, in a Mac Pro, very similar performance.

00:13:39 ◼   ► There's a few tweaks, like, OK, the MacBook Pro, you'll have to have an adapter for Ethernet

00:13:44 ◼   ► if you want to plug into Ethernet and those kinds of things.

00:13:50 ◼   ► And there's certainly downers.

00:13:51 ◼   ► I think for me, the bottom line, I'd rather go with the MacBook Pro.

00:13:55 ◼   ► And I've kind of gone back and forth on this a lot, played with it.

00:13:58 ◼   ► I'm not sure if I'll actually get one, but I think if I was making the choice today,

00:14:02 ◼   ► if I really decided I wanted to retire my 27-inch iMac, that's I think what I would

00:14:07 ◼   ► do.

00:14:08 ◼   ► I feel like you're getting more machine and you're getting more future-proofing into that

00:14:12 ◼   ► machine than you would be doing a Mac Pro.

00:14:16 ◼   ► But that's just kind of where I am right now.

00:14:19 ◼   ► But I think really the reality is that I'm going to be waiting until later next year

00:14:23 ◼   ► and getting into whatever the new professional solution is from Apple.

00:14:28 ◼   ► Which, who knows what that is?

00:14:30 ◼   ► My current 27 inch has been working pretty well for me.

00:14:33 ◼   ► And if I had problems with it, like I said,

00:14:35 ◼   ► I'd probably just get a MacBook Pro and then at some point

00:14:38 ◼   ► potentially transition that to being my secondary computer.

00:14:41 ◼   ► All right.

00:14:42 ◼   ► That's it for today's show.

00:14:42 ◼   ► Hopefully it's interesting.

00:14:43 ◼   ► I'd really like to hear feedback on this one

00:14:45 ◼   ► because so much of it's about personal preference.

00:14:47 ◼   ► And so if you have thoughts, feedback, the best place

00:14:49 ◼   ► is to reply to me on Twitter.

00:14:51 ◼   ► I'm @_davidsmith there.

00:14:53 ◼   ► The Twitter feed for this podcast is devperspective.

00:14:57 ◼   ► And otherwise, I hope you have a good week.

00:14:59 ◼   ► Happy coding, and I will talk to you soon.

00:15:01 ◼   ► Bye.